WORCESTER — Granted, the number of championship banners for sports such as wrestling, softball and field hockey do outnumber those for boys basketball in the Methacton gymnasium.

But imagine the surprise the Warriors got when they did their early morning reading Friday and found out some scribe from a local dot-com picked sixth-seeded Methacton to lose to 27th-seeded Bensalem in the opening round of the District 1 Class AAAA playoffs.

Suitably revved over the perceived slight, the Warriors amply demonstrated just why their basketball prowess may have been a tad underrated.

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Grabbing a double-digit lead in the first quarter and maintaining it the rest of the way, Methacton ran roughshod over the Owls, 67-49, in a game that only got relatively close in garbage time.

Methacton advances to the second round of districts, where it will host 11th-seeded Souderton, a victor over Pennsbury Friday in another district contest.

“When we saw that Bensalem was picked to beat us, that made us mad,” said Warriors senior Brendan Casper, who had 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals in the romp. “We’re no joke.”

“The kids were talking about it in the shoot-around (Friday) morning,” said Methacton head coach Jeff Derstine. “Traditionally, (the boys basketball program) hasn’t been a power in District 1.

“But we have a solid team.”

A solid team that knew what it needed to do to get past Bensalem, and did so impressively.

“I think we executed our game plan as well as we could,” said senior forward Matt Forrest, who had 16 points of his own, including a quartet of treys. “We wanted to slow (Bensalem) down, and we were able to do that.

“We’re not a team that runs up and down the court.”

“That was the plan, to make them play half-court and to not let them out in transition getting easy shots,” Casper said.

Forrest opened the first-quarter scoring with a three, and the Warriors never looked back. In fact, Methacton actually flashed a little transition of its own early when a Forrest steal and solo put the home team up, 7-0, midway through the quarter.

It didn’t get much better for the Owls, who saw Casper’s baseline drive put the Warriors up, 12-2, and moments later a Sean Mann three-ball increased the Methacton lead to 17-4.

By the middle of the second quarter the Warriors enjoyed a 19-point bulge following a pair of Anthony O’Brien free throws, and went into the break in front, 35-19.

At the break, Derstine cautioned his team that the Owls would come out swinging from the heels at the outset of the second half.

The Warriors responded with a 9-0 run to open the third period, and any thoughts of that prediction of an upset coming true were in the rear-view mirror.

“We swing the ball really well,” Forrest said, “and we’re always looking for people who are shooting with confidence. Everyone was shooting with confidence tonight, which helped.”

The Methacton lead stayed in the 20s for the bulk of the second half. And with their point made, the Warriors called off the dogs and began thinking about Round Two.

“We executed our game plan, played four quarters and played great team basketball,” Derstine said. “We knew how explosive Bensalem was, and we didn’t want them getting out and running.

“And I have to give some credit to (Warriors guard) Joe Ruhl, who did a great job defensively on (Bensalem guard) Leo Vincent. Vincent’s a 1,000-point scorer and very dangerous and Joe took on the challenge and played real well defensively.”

Now the focus shifts to Souderton, a team that defeated Methacton earlier this year.